Looking at the Sky
by LudwigTheViolin
Summary: It's Iceland's birthday. While at the World Meeting he was hosting, he finds himself reminiscing about his life. As he stares at the sky, Iceland thinks back to three specific memories. From when he was discovered to when he met his greatest friend to a volcanic eruption, Iceland reminds himself that in the long life of a country, the sky isn't always blue.


**Author's Note: Happy Birthday, Iceland! I love you...You didn't read that part.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia**

 **Pairings: Denmark x Norway, Hong Kong x Iceland (implied/hinted)**

* * *

 _-First Person-_

Currently, I was at a World Meeting. You would think that I would be exempt from the meeting, with it being my birthday, but this time I found that I could not miss this meeting. For once, the meeting was about something that I had interest in: tourism. This meeting we were supposed to be talking about how we could help one another in boosting tourism. I probably should have chosen to skip this meeting, though. Plus, I was asked to host the meeting this year, so I couldn't have declined even if I didn't care for the topic of the meeting.

Why did I think this meeting would be different?

It wasn't as if this meeting would be different from the rest. England and France were bickering like an old married couple while America loudly interrupted them, only to feed fuel to the fire and make the argument worse. North Italy was babbling away to Germany, who looked like he had given up on trying to bring order to the meeting. Meanwhile, Norway was trying to pry Denmark off of him, while said nation was trapping him in a hug. Russia was sitting on top of someone, though I don't know who. It was the usual routine for any meeting. The only difference was that this meeting I had expected something better, which only made it worse. Hong Kong wasn't attending this meeting, which is normal because he is not an actual country. Hong Kong only came to meetings when China dragged him along or the meeting was about something that might affect him. I was slightly disappointed that he didn't come to this meeting, though. After all, I was hosting it.

Usually I might find meetings at least a little amusing, but this meeting was just plain boring. Well, it wasn't entirely boring, China was literally breaking walls with his kicks and Romano's cursing was always funny. Anyway, back to the point, this meeting is boring. With nothing better to do, I looked out the window, imagining what I could have been doing that was better than being at this meeting.

The sky was so blue.

'Of course it's blue, Ice, it's always blue,' I internally retorted. Looking up at the sky, I thought back to when he was younger, when big brother Norway (don't tell him I said that) would tell me stories which attempted to explain the world and the phenomenons that made little sense back then. Now, however, there was science that explained everything. Although, it failed to explain why us nations existed. While I am thankful to science, which helps me monitor my volcanoes, I cannot say I am fond of it. I rather enjoyed those tales which I had believed in for centuries.

However, as soon as that idea, the idea that the sky is always blue, formed in my head, I just as quickly dismissed it. After all, with the long life of a country, I knew well that the sky wasn't always blue.

* * *

 _I remember that it was dark. I never liked night time, despite there being beautiful stars to gaze at and the northern lights above. Night time was when the creatures of the dark appeared, haunting me and scaring me half to death._

 _I was a baby at that time, not even a toddler. I had never encountered people in this world I called home, my only companions were the animals that frolicked about. But whenever night time came, my animals would go to sleep and I would be awake and alone._

 _Today was like any other day. I had wandered around the island, played with a few puffins, scavenged for food, and now I was taking shelter by the volcano._

 _I walked past the glowing rocks, freshly formed from the latest eruption. That eruption had caused me to fall ill for some time. I was certain I would die, the pain was immense, like the rocks above me collapsed and took all the air out of me. Volcanic ash had filled my lungs and my body was on fire. Every breath in made me double over in pain and every breath out caused my head to spin. My throat was parched, but even after I drank water from the spring, the flame that settled itself in my body continued to consume me._

 _Of course, at the time, I had not known what fire was. I could only describe it as something horrible that made me want to close my eyes._

 _But I couldn't close my eyes. I didn't want to close my eyes. If I closed my eyes, the creatures of the dark would come and get me. And not all of the animals here were kind. Some would hurt me and commit unspeakable horrors to the other animals. If the creatures of the dark didn't get me, then those animals surely would._

 _I finally found a place by the volcano that was safe. I settled myself on top of one of the boulders, sitting cross-legged and staring up at the large, gaping opening of the volcano. It was not the comfiest place to be, but the volcano provided warmth and protection from the biting winter winds that made my body go numb in pain._

 _For a long time I sat there quietly, staring blankly ahead. And despite the protests of my mind, my body had fallen asleep._

 _Suddenly there were voices, and I had immediately woken up. My eyes snapped open and I was scrambling behind the boulder to hide as I listened to the voices. The sound was unfamiliar, it certainly wasn't any animal I knew of._

 _"Oh come on, Norge! Ya know ya think this place looks cool! And it's oddly warm in here too," This voice was a little rough, and it was very loud. I couldn't comprehend what the sounds meant._

 _"Danmark, this place is dangerous, we should return to the others," I heard a smoother voice, a lot quieter than the first one. Then again, the first voice was really, really loud. When I strained my ears, I could hear heavy footsteps getting closer, and suddenly, the ash in my throat was rising up again. Thankfully, I managed to quickly place a hand over my mouth, to stop myself._

 _Just when I thought I was safe, however, the second voice began again and I could hear footsteps heading my direction._

 _I looked up, frightened. It was probably the creatures of the night, ready to take me away._

 _But what I saw was not the creatures of the dark. I peered back at a set of two faces. One with bright blue eyes and the other with calm indigo eyes. They wore strange clothing, and the one on the right had hair that reminded me of a wild animal. On the side of both of them_

 _Their mouths opened, and they talked to each other and to me. Once again, I still couldn't tell what they were saying, but I, for some reason, felt so relaxed and relieved._

 _I was underneath the pitch black night sky when I was found by Denmark and Norway._

* * *

 _It was sunset, the sky painted orange and red and pink when I was going to leave my island for the first time. After Denmark and Norway found me, I was taken to where they were staying._ _There were a lot of scary men there, but there were also women and children. It was strange, to have memories filled with loneliness and then suddenly be thrust into a situation where I was surrounded by people. The people had immediately surrounded Denmark, Norway, and I when we arrived to the settlement. For the past few months, the people, along with Denmark and Norway, began teaching me. The first thing I learned was the language, although Denmark and Norway had been speaking a different language when I first heard them. When I wasn't learning, I was guiding the people throughout my island, showing them the plants I ate and all of my animal companions._

 _The people had a few people staying back to watch and maintain the settlement, but Denmark and Norway were returning to their lands. I was supposed to stay on the island, originally, but I found myself throwing fits and trying to convince them to take me with them. I don't know why I wanted to go with Denmark and Norway. I loved my island, and I didn't want to part with it, but for some reason I didn't want to part with those two either._

 _Eventually, after a lot of persuasion that was mostly through body language, I had convinced Norway to take me with them._

 _I was currently in his arms, small hands gripping tightly onto the furs of Norway's clothes. While one of Norway's arms supported me and kept me up, the other was rubbing my back. Tears welled up in my eyes as we boarded the long boat._

 _"Hmm, you were so adamant about leaving earlier, but now you're crying," Norway spoke to me. I didn't understand some of the words he said, but I knew what he was saying._

 _I just shook my head, hastily wiping the tears away._

 _Denmark, who was behind us and was carrying all of our stuff, laughed aloud._

 _Soon we were sailing away from my island. I clung to Norway as we went out to sea. I knew the ocean, but I had never gone on a boat before. I was scared, and while the sunset above me was beautiful, it offered no comfort. The only comfort I managed to find was Norway's doting on me and Denmark's reassuring words. Denmark probably would have been over here with Norway and I, but he was busy helping around the long boat, trying to work for both Norway and himself, so that Norway could tend to me._

 _I watched as my island slowly shrank._

 _We weren't far from my island as we passed by a large boulder. Puffins were resting on it, crowded on the small piece of land. I waved goodbye to them, secretly hoping that they could read my mind as I silently pleaded them to watch over the island._

 _Then, easy to spot against the colorful sky, a puffin that looked slightly different from the others, flew above, landing on the ship._

 _Norway was about to shoo it away, until I reached out and grabbed the puffin._

 _It pecked at me lightly, but other than that, it seemed to accept the hug I had pulled it into._

 _The sky was as orange as a puffin's beak when I befriended Mr. Puffin._

* * *

 _The sky was gray and red and black. I was terrified._

 _It had been many years since I first left my island. I had gone back home quickly, however. I visited big brother, Denmark, Sweden, and Sweden's territory, Finland, often. Admittedly, I visited big brother much more often than the others._

 _Over the years the settlements had become villages and I was no longer lonely._

 _But my people were wary of me, and I wasn't entirely sure why. I assumed it was my strange appearance, and the fact that I looked very young despite being the eldest person on the island. Some were kind, they gave me food when I passed by or talked to me. Some were terrible, they threw stones at me and called me bad words that big brother instructed me to never say._

 _Today, however, my people all wore the same reaction to me on their faces._

 _They looked at me in horror as I fell down in the middle of the village square. Some of the people who care about me probably would have approached me, asking what was wrong, had I not coughed out volcanic ash as I fell on my knees. I had tried to stop, I had tried to cover it, but when I coughed it had spilled out of my hands and flown into the air._

 _I was curled on the dirty ground, clutching the cloth of my tunic that was over my heart as I continued to cough out ash._

 _It had been surprisingly been years since the last destructive eruption on my island occurred while I was actually on the island; and I had nearly forgotten what the pain felt like._

 _But now the pain was back._

 _And now there was big brother Norway or Finland to take care of me, no Denmark to try and cheer me up, and no Sweden to cook food that made me better. Mr. Puffin was on the other side of the island, looking at the other villages that I had no time to visit._

 _I stared up at the ash in the sky and looked over at the red oozing fire that the volcano spitted out. The sky was gray when I, for the first time in the years I had learned about my nation status, felt alone._

* * *

"Ice! You're not allowed to have alcohol!" Denmark yelled out, plucking my cup of vodka out of his hands. Norway was beside him, emotionless and holding his cup and what I presumed was Denmark's.

I felt my eye twitch, as I turned to Denmark, "I'm older than America, and he's allowed to drink!" I retorted.

"Denmark is right, Iceland. You are too young to have alcohol," Norway said, surprisingly agreeing with the Dane.

I groaned, allowing the two to take away my drink. Of course I wouldn't be allowed to drink on my own birthday, not while those two, or any of the Nordics, were here.

Thankfully, the other Nordics had chosen not to give me a special surprise birthday party this year. Instead they had chosen to turn the World meeting into my birthday party. Denmark had somehow convinced my people to give him all of the alcohol. Well, he didn't have all of the alcohol, he had only gotten a bit of it. Most of it was with Finland.

I felt someone tap my shoulder, and I whipped my head around.

"You, like, completely forgot about me, didn't you?" a monotone voice said. I found a small smile form on my face as Hong Kong handed me a cup of alcohol.

We stood there in silence, both of us looking out the window to gaze at the northern lights, sipping our alcohol. I thought back to only a few hours ago. My mind had drifted off in the middle of the meeting, and I had found myself thinking back to some of my earliest memories. There were plenty of distinct events that swirled around in my head and stood in the timeline of my history, but for some reason that I could not explain, I was thinking back to when I had been younger. Growing up as a viking was as easy as it was comfortable and the Kalmar Union was not something any of the Nordics liked to think about. Still, I couldn't help but think fondly of most my early memories.

Hong Kong and I lifted our cups up to the sky, which was lit up green and blue by the northern lights, as Hong Kong properly greeted me.

"Happy birthday, Iceland."

* * *

 **Author's Note: Hooray, I finished! Thanks for reading!**


End file.
